The chairman of Breckland Council has led members in a moment of silent tribute to two-times Watton mayor Roy Rudling who died last month.

Nigel Wilkin told yesterday's full council meeting Mr Rudling, who chaired Breckland Council in 2006-07, mentored him after he was first elected, and shared some of his memories.

To laughter, he said: 'Cliffy did say 'You will learn a lot from Roy, but for God's sake don't do everything he did'. I think we would all agree that one Roy in the room was enough. He thrived on debate and I think it sometimes seemed he enjoyed rubbing people up the wrong way.'

He said Mr Rudling and others ran a book on the length of council meetings, and he did particularly well during his year chairing its gatherings.

He said he was instrumental in the housing stock transfer and getting a good price from the sale of the Attleborough office.

He said: 'I did learn a lot from Roy and one thing that always stuck with me was he said to me 'Don't try to be someone you are not when being yourself is so much easier to achieve'. That's something I think we could all learn from.'